In the wake of the shooting of Woburn Police Officer Robert DeNapoli and in rememberance of the 10th anniversary of 9/11, Redeemer partnered with local clergy, community leaders, and elected officials to host the Woburn Unites Candlelight Vigil on Woburn Common.  An estimated 200 people gathered to express support of our police and first responders. The prayers, blessings, and readings reminded us that, as it says in Psalm 45, "God is in the midst of the city."

On Sunday, June 12th Redeemer will welcome The Reverend Laura Everett, Associate Director of the Massachusetts Council of Churches, as our guest preacher and presider.  June 12th marks the observance of the Day of Pentecost in the Christian calendar - the day when we celebrate the birth of the church, as told in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles.

On that day, the Holy Spirit fell on people of all lands and cultures and gathered them together into one church, the Body of Christ. Thus, Pentecost has long been a day to celebrate the great diversity of the church - something that is central to Laura's work with the Mass Council.

One of the viral hits of this past holiday season is this YouTube video of a flash mob singing the Hallelujah Chorus in an Ontario mall food court.· It’s fun, beautiful, and has moved many to tears.· I love it because it breaks down our notions the sacred and the profane - and the false divisions we erect between them.

One of my favorite books about Communion is called Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion by Sara Miles.  It was about her own first communion at the age of forty-six.

Miles was raised by atheist parents, she worked as a chef, then as a journalist and war correspondent. She was happily non-religious, and then one morning for reasons hard to explain, she walked into a church on a Sunday morning and had communion and it completely changed her life.